finding a sense of place

Write 31 Days – A Journey Through Grief

There is a table of contents at the bottom of this post for the #write31days challenge.

For the month of October, there will be a group of bloggers writing feverishly for the whole month (most days) and sharing thoughts with you on multiple topics. It is called Write 31 Days.

I’ve decided to take you on my journey of processing grief after losing my mother on August 13 of this year. The grief is still raw and I don’t know how this journey will progress. Some of the things I share with you will be notes and thoughts I kept on an app on my phone so that I could capture my thoughts about losing her while they were fresh. Those will be shared with minimal editing so that you can have a sense of my thought process. Others will be current real-time thoughts as they happen to come along from day to day. There will also be memories because I am finding that the memories are an important step in navigating grief. I will also share scriptures that I find helpful in my journey. It won’t be strictly chronological but I think you’ll be able to follow my wandering.

One important thing to know. I’m not sharing this to be sentimental or emotional, although there will be elements of that I’m sure. I’m not sharing because I want people to constantly tell me how sorry they are. I assume if you are a decent person, then on some level, you are sorry that I have lost someone I love. Many people have been more than kind with prayers, cards, and thoughts. But rather I am sharing because writing is the only way I know to get my thoughts out of my head so that I can understand how I’m moving forward. Since this is a journey I need to take I thought maybe you’d allow me to share it with you and maybe it will be helpful to you as well.

If you want to engage in conversation in the comments you are more than welcome to do so. I’d love to hear how you process grief. And, just as a final thought, I don’t consider grief to be all tears and downturned faces. There are also moments of laughter, hope, and joy that my sweet Mama is now in the arms of Jesus. Hopefully, you will see elements of all that in the writing.

My hope is that it will speak to you and that someday hence it will not become a regret that I shared too much or allowed you to see the raw, tender places in the depths of my heart.

This post is day one and each day I will share a link below to the newest post. Each daily post will give you a date or an approximate date that it was written just so you have somewhat of a timeline.

Thanks for stopping by, Jackie and for your encouragement. I think the writing will definitely be helpful. I’m actually more motivated to write than I have been in a long time. My Mom wrote poetry and I’ll be sharing some of that too this month.

I am reallly looking forward to this. It has been 8 years & I am still grieving the death of my father. I know there is no time limit on grieving & some days it seems like it was just yesterday that he passed away.

I am so glad you are reading along, Paula. I am beginning to see that grief is something that we have to find a way to embrace and let it teach us and draw us closer to God. I’m hoping this journey will help me do that and maybe it will help others as well.